It is common practice to service loom reeds at the loom utilizing a portable tank of cleaning liquid together with scrubbing brushes. An air supply from the mill is then utilized in order to blow off the reed drying the cleaning liquid and removing loose lint and sizing accumulation as may be dislodged during cleaning. It is desirable that cleaning take place at the loom to avoid cutting out the warp. If the wrap yarns are cut out preparatory to cleaning, it is then necessary to draw in each of the ends of the yarn after cleaning and replacing of the reed. Such cleaning of the reed away from the loom has been accomplished utilizing a tank containing cleaning fluid to which ultrasonic energy is applied. Such ultrasonic cleaning actions are followed by blow off of the loom reed with the dislodged contaminants being blown off into the room.
Both of the methods outlined above have the disadvantage of failing to thoroughly clean the loom reed in that contaminants remain on the reed to increase the build up of new contaminants resulting in the necessity of frequent cleaning operations with resulting expensive down time.
Accordingly it is an important object of the present invention to remove the cleaning liquid from the loom reed by means of a rinsing operation and an air treatment so as to thus thoroughly clean the loom reed discouraging the build up of lint, size and other contaminants.
Another important object of the invention is to ultrasonically clean a loom reed, with the warp yarns remaining therein, at the loom while providing an apparatus for carrying out a rinsing operation ultrasonically which may then be followed by an application of air to dry the reed of rinse liquid while collecting contaminants which had been dislodged by cleaning and rinsing.